Adjustable index.



J. H. RAND. ADJUSTABLE INDEX.

' APPLIOATIGN FILED IAN. 16, 1911.

JAMES fr, BAND, or nnw'lrmfxas'snertnsnrrs.

i ADJUSTABLE To a-Z 'whom it may concern Be it known that I, JAMES citizen of the United States, and residentof Newton, in the county of Middlesex and- State of Massachusetts, have inventedl new and useful Improvements in Adjustable Indexes, of which the following is a-speification.V

This invention relates to adjustable in? dexes or indicators, of the general character` illustrated in Letters Patent No. 890,925, issued to me June 16, 1908, to .which reference is hereby made.` ,l

It has been found in practice that by rea'- son of the handling and manipulation of the index strips, incident to repeated removals, replacements andadjustments of the stri s in a constantly changing indicator, t e strips, which are usually of cardboard, quickly become soiled, broken, or otherwlse ldistigured or injured, necessitating their being replaced by new strips. To overcome this I have devised transparent rotectlve sheaths for the index strips, said s eaths so constructed as to be adjustably .and interchangeably mounted in the frame of the 1ndicator and to hold each a removable index strip, which is wholly protected from wear or injury by the sheath, and which may be removed and discarded when its usefulness is gone, and be replaced by another strip.-

Furthermore, it is possible tovuse in combination with such sheaths, index strips of thin, fiexible paper or other material suitable for being written upon,but not having enough stiffness in itself tot constitute the adjustable and interchangeable index tablet. An ordinary sheet yof paper may be used for writing the inscription, and the paper then cut into strips of the desired" size, thus greatly reducing the cost of material and the trouble of writing the inscriptions. It has also been necessary heretofore, as shown in my Letters Patent aforesaid, to provide the tianged frame for supporting the indicator strips with a spring-pressed follower, bearing against the ends ,of the strips, to admit of the insertion and removal of theA strips without shortening them by bending or buckling them for that purpose, otherwise the cardboard of which the strips were made would either be broken or cracked, or would remain permanently bent and so prevent the strips from lying flat and smooth in the index frame, since cardboard which is thick enough and stiff venough to serve Specification of Iiettei's `atent. application inea January' 1e, .1911.

H. RAND, a; f

' ,Ptentedlll'aylL 1912. ASerial No. 602,852.

`for the tabletsor strips without any reinorcement, is not sufficiently resilient toreturn again to a perfectly flat condition 'after ,it has 'been bent -sutlicientlyl to spring its endsont of the guide channels.

Wlth my present invention the spring pressed -follow'erbf the frame may be dispensed with, and the construction of the frame thereby much simplified, as my .pro-

tect-iv'e sheaths possess such resiliency thatl they may be inserted in andvremoved from the frame by bending or buckling, after which` they will again resume a perfectly flat condition, and also/ possess sutiicient stiffness lto serve as interchangeable tablets without breaking Ior crumpling as does unprotected paper und'er the ordinary condi- -tions of use, While the paper indicator strips which are sli ped into the sheaths may be as thin and requisite stiffness is furnished by the sheaths. Still further features of my invention consist in 'providing each protective sheath with a longitudinal slot on its rear side, through which a suitable pointed-implement, or even the finger or finger nail ofthe user, may be inserted t-o push the removable index strip out of the sheath; and in so flattening the juxtaposed edge surfaces of the sheaths that they will not tend to overlap, one upon another, when pressed together, but will lie edge t edge in a substantially continuous plane;

vIn the accompanying drawings which illustrate one embodiment of my invention, Figure l is a face view of a portion of an adjustable indicator embodying my invention, parts being broken away; Fig. 2 is al sec tional view on line 2 2 of Fig. l; Fig. 3 is a sect-ional view, enlarged, on line 3 3 of F ig. 1; and Fig. 4 is a perspectiveI view of one o f the protective sheaths and removable index strips, showing the rear side thereof ing the inscription, and instead of being mounted directly in the frame with theirl ends supported by the guide-flanges as in lght as desired since all the asA The protective sheath is made of stilf, transparent, resilient material such as cel'- luloid, formed with a long, relatively nar stead o lrow and flat front face vor body portion c, through which the inscription on the index y strip may be observed. The long edges of the sheath-body are turned inwardly toward each other to form guiding and retaining lips of, for guiding and holding the index strips b. The lips c are folded over on two parallel lilies so as to make two rectangular folds c2, thereby providing a flattened edge surface c3 to abut squarely against a similar edge surface of the next -adjacent sheath, thus avoiding any tendency of the edges of the sheaths when crowded toward each other to slip past one another, and overlap and jam, as might result if the abuttin edges were simply rounded in- The edges of the lips c are spaced apart to form a slot c4 lengthwise of the sheath, through which slot a pointed implement, such as a knife blade K may be inserted to push the index strip bf lengthwise out of the sheath. Fig. t shows the index strip partially removed. The strips b might of course be made to lfit ,sutliciently loosely in the sheaths to drop out through the open end when the sheaths are held iii vertical position, but it is desirable that the strips should have a reasonably close tit in the sheaths,'and in that event it is necessary to provide a slot c4 to facilitate their removal.

The sheet celluloid sheaths, constructed as above described, are flexible, so that they may be sprung or buckled into the shape shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2, for insertion into or removal from the frame, andare also exceedingly resilient so that after being so bent they will again resume their original, perfectly flat condition, without injury or distortion. Thus I am enabled to use two similar narrowguide-llanges a', and to dispense with the springjpressed follower shown in my said former patent.

From the foregoing it will be seen that the sheaths, which have to endure substantially all of the handling, may be practically as durable as the fralne itself, will not become soiled nor worn, and will' preferably protect the strips from being damaged or disligured. Furthermore, the strips may readily be removed and replaced, and as they require no stiffness themselves, that being supplied by the shcaths, they may bc lnade of ordinary paper whenever required by the user, thus saving the expenseof procuring and printing specially manufactured card strips as has heretofore been the practice.

I claim:

An indicator device comprising a frame provided with inwardly facing guide channels, and a plurality of longitudinally resilient protective sheat-hs, each formed of stili, transparent, resilient material, and having a relatively long and narrow, closed front face, and inwardly-turned retaining lipsl on the rear side to form a slide for removably holding indicator strips, said sheaths by their resiliency being removable from the guide channels of the frame, and interchangeably held at their ends by said guide channels.

Signed by me at Boston, Massachusetts, this seventh day of January, 1911.

JAMES H. RAND.

lVitnesses CHARLES l). \Voonnnmir, Josnruiisn Il. RYAN. 

